Forestry

A new coating for wood products is being heralded by Grant Forest Products as a “big breakthrough” for the OSB (Oriented Strand Board) producer now ramping up production at its new $20-million coated structural board mill in Earleton.

While mill closures roll through the forestry sector, the Wilderness Group is diversifying and creating new jobs as a result of a $1 million loan from the provincial Northern Ontario Grow Bonds program.

Working better and smarter is the primary reason for constructing a new $3.2 million fire management headquarters in Cochrane according to a Ministry of Natural Resources official.

David Ramsay expects to see some re-greening in Northern Ontario’s forestry industry. The Natural Resources Minister predicts the industry will look very different from today in the coming years.

A year after Cascades Inc. padlocked operations at their Thunder Bay coated paper mill and put 500 workers out of work, new investors with deep pockets and industry savvy are poised to re-open it.

It is confusing as to why governments appear to be lending much needed support to the forest industry on the one hand, yet taking it away with the other. Anyone living in the North knows the forestry sector is in ruin.

Two northeastern, value-added forest companies are taking issue with the provincial government’s action to sell their wood supply to Quebec competitors.

As a sign of heightened activity, Manitou Forest Products saw nearly $1 million worth of renovations this spring, doubling the size of its building and bringing new technology and new jobs to Emo Township.

Insolvent St. Marys Paper received some energy relief from Queen’s Park last month with a rebate program aimed at helping Ontario pulp and paper producers.

The full economic impact of the ongoing forestry crisis has yet to hit northwestern Ontario, says a Lakehead University economics professor who anticipates the worst is yet to come for places such as Thunder Bay.